Salem in 1912

World Events

• The Manchu Qing dynasty ends after 268 years, the Republic of China is proclaimed and officially led by Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang political party. (His wife is one of four Chang sisters educated in U.S.)
• Emperor Meiji of Japan dies, succeeded by his son , Emperor Taisho. Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship.
• Woodrow Wilson is elected President. Elihu Root is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court".
• The Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic with a loss of at least 1500 passengers and crew.
• New Mexico (47) and Arizona (48) become the last contiguous states. Alaska is accepted as a territory.
• The Girl Scouts is founded by Juliette Gordon Law in Savannah, Georgia.
• W. C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, publishes "The Memphis Blues", giving attention to "southern rag", the "blues" of today.
• Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan" and Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" both appear in magazines.
• New American Books: A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, Amy Lowell and Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey.

 In Salem
In 1912, postcards were all the rage for Salem travelers wishing to share the novelty of new places seen in their adventures. The Patton brothers, Edwin Cooke and Hal had lived in Japan as children when their father was US Consul in Kobe. They knew the value of this business and opened Patton Postcard Hall in 1908. A narrow room filled with cards, it was located between the Patton and Gill Buildings on State Street. In this 1912 photograph, E. Cooke Patton, is working with an unknown lady assistant. Patton postcards were among the finest produced at the time with a German photographer and the colors applied with artistry.
Local collectors have preserved many of these postcards.

When you visit
No architectural traces of this pioneer family remain in Salem. The Postcard Hall disappeared during the expansion of US National Bank east along State Street in the 1960s. The Patton Building, adjacent to the bank, was demolished in the same construction. Their home is also gone. The brothers' grandfather, Edwin Cooke, had built the Cooke-Patton mansion on Court Street, opposite the State House. They lived in the house all their lives, first with their parents and then settling in with their wives after they married. Luella, Cooke Patton's daughter, was born there and lived with her family until she married and moved to 23rd Street. The house became among the first to be demolished for the construction of the state office buildings beginning in 1937.
(Luella lived to be 109, dying in 2007.)

Other Events

• Equal suffrage won voter approval in Oregon; women are allowed to vote for the first time in the December 2 city election. Smoking is therefore not permitted at polling places as the City Council determines a smoke-filled environment is not suitable for women. However, women were declared ineligible to serve on juries.
• Salem's first Oregon National Guard unit occupies the new Armory on the corner of Ferry and Liberty Streets.

Carnegie Library now Willamette University Civic Law Center

• The establishment of a Carnegie Library in Salem, sponsored by a committee of local women, opens on State Street. After the library moved into the Civic Center in 1972, the YWCA used the building. It is now the Civic Law Center of Willamette University.
• The handsome Masonic Hall is completed on the northwest corner of State and High Streets. It was designed by Ellis Lawrence, founder of the University of Oregon School of Architecture, who was also the architect for the Hubbard Building and the Elsinore Theater.
• The Jason Lee Memorial Church and the nearby Highland Elementary School are built this year in North Salem. Both are still serving their original purposes one hundred years later and are designated as Local Landmarks.

The Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital

• The Dome Building of the Oregon State Hospital is erected on the north side of Center Street. It was designed by Edgar Lazarus who also known for his Vista House on the heights above the Columbia Gorge. The beautiful building, originally used as a receiving ward, has a curved canopy descending over the entrance, fluted cast-iron columns, a flat roof with saucer dome and two-story wings to the north and south. Located on the north side of Center Street, it is not part of the current hospital renovation. It gained recognition in 1975 when used for scenes in the Academy Award winning film, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Oregon Sate Hospital Historic District.
• Walter Gerth, an early booster and mayor of West Salem, opens a store. The family home is now a Local Landmark on Gerth Street.
• Through 37 years, 1920-1957, Louis Olson and his wife Ida lived in a spacious 1912 bungalow at 1490 McCoy Avenue. This beautiful home is in the Grant neighborhood. Mr. Olson had a variety of occupations: packing superintendent at King Foods on Front Street (now Truitt Brothers), patrolman with the Salem Police Department, weightmaster with the State Highway Department, elevator operator and engineer at the Masonic Temple and, finally, caretaker of that institution.
• The Waller-Chamberlain House is moved to its present site on Court Street. It is considered the oldest residence in the Court-Chemeketa Residential Historic District.
• Wilbur Boothby dies at his residence, 171 Court Street. His life and many outstanding local achievements are recognized in contemporary newspaper accounts and a lengthy obituary. Born in Maine in 1840, he had come to Oregon in 1864, after various enterprises in California. His first business a sash and door factory. As a contractor and designer, he built the ornate Marion County Courthouse, the State Hospital, South Eldridge Block (now Greenbaum's Quilted Forest), Bush House and many other local buildings. His wife, the former Miss R. A. Dalglsish, died in 1910, leaving a son and daughter. The Rev. P. S. Knight conducted his funeral service at the home and Boothby was buried in the I. O. O. F. Cemetery ~ now Pioneer Cemetery.

Salem in 1911

World Events

• The Mexican Revolution, led by Madero and Pancho Villa, ends as Porfirio Diaz resigns and flees to France. Political conflict continued until the adoption of a Constitution in 1917 .
• Physician, writer and philosopher Sun-Tat-Sun (known afterward as the Father of the Nation) is elected Provisional President of a democratic government in China as Manchu dynasty falls.
• Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize for chemistry.
• U. S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil Trust violated Sherman Anti-trust Act. The monopoly broken up and 34 companies established.
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 immigrant (mostly women) workers unable to escape as the doors were locked by owners to prevent unauthorized work breaks.
• Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.
• Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition reaches the South Pole.
• Bobby Jones wins is first golf title at the age of 9.
• New American Books: Jennie Gerhardt, Theodore Dreiser; Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton; Canzoni, Ezra Pound.

In Salem

• In this photograph, President William Howard Taft stands in an automobile, surrounded by not-so-Secret Service. In the background is the Eugene Breyman house on the northeast corner of Church and Court Streets, now the site of Statesman Journal. The president appears to be facing the Breyman Brothers Spanish American War Memorial at the entrance to Willson Park. Hallie Parrish Hinges (featured in the 1903 entry) leads a chorus of school children as the president gazes down on the group.

After leaving office, Taft spent his time in seeking world peace through his self-founded "League to Enforce Peace." In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the United States, fulfilling Taft's lifelong dream. Taft served in this capacity until his death in 1930.

When you visit
The Eugene Breyman residence, like that of his brother Werner (a block south), has been demolished. This house, greatly renovated, was moved to Summer Street during the conversation of the original residential block to commercial use. In the 1990s it was demolished for the construction of the State Lands Building.
The 1904 Spanish American memorial remains the Cottage Street gateway into Willson Park. The park was created in 1854 when William Willson, pioneer of the Methodist mission, donated a portion of his land to build the new Oregon territorial capitol building. The capitol would be located in the center of a long, open space designated on Willson's original plat as "Willson Avenue," just south of his house on the corner of Court and Capitol streets. (See 1881) It was Willson's wish to preserve open spaces within the growing town, similar to the village commons in the New England towns. The block between the capitol building and the Marion County Courthouse was declared a public square. It eventually became known as Willson Park.

Other events

Duniway-Lachmund Home on Court Street, 1911-1930s

Present State Street Location, 2014

• Louis Lachmund becomes mayor. Due to the construction of the North Capitol Mall in 1937, his home on Court Street was condemned, purchased by Willamette University and moved to the campus. A subsequent move brought it to its present location on State Street. When the Lachmunds left their home, they moved to the Jarman House, a 1929 Spanish Colonial residence designed by Beverly Hills architect Glen McAlister with gardens created by the local landscape firm of Lord and Schryver. This National Register property can be seen on SHINE Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Walking Tour.
• An outstanding social event is the wedding of Margaret Boot to Asahel Bush IV, grandson of the newspaper publisher and founder of Ladd and Bush Bank. Her parents' home is on Birdshill Drive in South Salem neighborhood. The young couple became parents of Asahel V and Stuart Bush. Margaret died at age of 34 in 1934 after an illness of 3 years.
• D. A. White Warehouse is erected on Front Street. This company had numerous large feed warehouses, including one in Europe, but this the only one that remains a token of that enterprise of the horse-and-buggy era.  It is still standing in the same location and can be seen on the SHINE Historic Downtown Walking Tour.
• Eugene Ely, the Bird Man, an aviation pioneer, visits Salem and makes a successful flight. He mounts his fragile machine on Lone Oak track at the fairgrounds, turned on the juice and after skimming along the track, arose from the ground in front of the grandstand. He ascended about 400 feet and raced around the track, first with an automobile and then with a motorcycle. As a final performance, he circled the Capitol Dome. That October he died during a Macon, Georgia exhibition in a crash when his plane was late pulling out of a dive.

In the Capitol Journal:

• Salem's mayor was arrested for violating a traffic ordinance, His honor was charged with cutting a corner at the intersection of State and Commercial streets. The mayor pleaded that his horse was just a colt and that he could not control it. Judge Elgin remitted the fine and the mayor was richer by a $5 gold piece.
• Buren and Hamilton, Salem household furnishers, advertised heating stoves from $1.50 up. Their carbon heaters for both coal and wood were supplied with heavy grates and extra-heavy cast iron fire pots. All had large mica doors in front, giving the effect of an open fire. They were neat and free from superfluous trimmings.
• Barnes Cash Store offered old Civil War Springfield rifles of 45-70 calibers with a bayonet for $1.50. "A very appropriate decoration for Memorial Day".
• Secretary of State Olcott desired to oust State Printer Duniway from the Capitol. he requested an opinion from Attorney General Crawford on the subject. Crawford ruled that the state printer was occupying his quarters without authority, but so were the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the governor and the Supreme Court.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1877

World Events

• On January 1, Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India. Charles George Gordon ("Chinese Gordon"), much respected British diplomat and general, becomes General-General in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
• The US presidential election is finally decided in favor of Republican Hayes after a compromise. Southern Democrats benefit by federal troops leaving former the former Confederate states.
• In January, at the Battle of Wolf Mountain, Chief Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with U.S. Cavalry. In May, realizing his people are weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse surrenders. In August, near Big Hole River, Montana, a small band of Nez Perce are defeated in a clash with U. S. Army.
• Cornelius Vanderbilt, the wealthy shipping and railroad magnate, who founded the modern corporation, dies. In 1873, to compensate for his support of the Union in the Civil War (and please his second wife, a native of Mobile, Alabama), he founded Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. (The First Tycoon, T. J. Styles, 2009)
• In November, Edison demonstrates his phonograph ~ considered his first great invention.
• Popular dime-novel: Deadwood Dick by Edwin Wheeler. New Books: The American, Henry James  Black Beauty, Anna Sewell.

In Salem
Asahel Bush begins building his new residence to replace their home of 17 years. That house had belonged to the Leslie family and was a part of the land assigned to David Leslie in 1843 when the Methodist Mission was discontinued. Mr. Bush purchased the house and the 100-acre property in 1860. The new Italianate structure, completed the next year, was designed by Wilbur F. Boothby. It would be home to the Bush family for the next 75 years. It was part of a farm complex which included a barn, greenhouse, various gardens, orchards, and open ground serving as pasture. When Mr. Bush acquired the land it was outside the city original limits, but as the years passed it became a central portion of the growing City of Salem.
Asahel Bush died in 1913, but his daughter, "Miss Sally" continued living there and brought her sister Eugenia home for the last years 20 years of her life. After Miss Sally died in 1946, her brother A.N. Bush returned to the house in 1948 when his Capitol Street home was demolished for the construction Oregon Highway Building (now the Public Service Building) of the North Capitol Mall. The family had sold the property before his death in 1953 at the age of 93. The sale to the city specified Bush's Pasture Park be named in honor of the father and be restricted to park and playground use. There was no provision for preserving the buildings, but they have since been occupied by the Salem Art Association and maintained by the city.

When you visit
The Bush House Museum, operated by the Salem Art Association, is open to the public ten months of the year (closed January and February). Tickets may be purchased at Bush Barn. In July an art fair is held in Bush's Pasture Park, attracting artists and craftsmen with a wide range of creative works for sale. The property is in the SCAN neighborhood, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the center of the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Residential Historic District. A self-guided walking tour of the district can be found on this web/blog.

Other Events

• T.M Gatch is mayor 1877-8.
• Rachel Belden Brooks, an African-American who lived in Waldo Hills with the Delaney family in 1844, is found on the 1877 tax records with 144 homestead acres on the west side of Willamette River. "Aunt Rachel" was a familiar Salem figure, well remembered after her death in 1910. She is buried in the Delaney plot in Pioneer cemetery.

• The elegant, Italianate-styled England Block is constructed downtown at 216-20 Commercial Street NE. Like many other downtown buildings, this has been significantly altered through the years, especially in the 1950s, and no longer contributes to the architecture of the historic district. The 1886 photograph above shows the original, dignified appearance of the building as it blended with the others stretching between Court and Chemeketa Streets. At about the time of the photograph, William England's commercial property was sold to R. M. Wade, another merchant of agricultural and household equipment on Commercial Street. Mr. England was a pioneer Salem wagon maker and successful banker, but a business failure and death of his young son contributed to his own loss of health as recalled in his 1901 obituary. The family's Victorian home was a block north at 340 Liberty N. It was demolished in 1951.
• Elijah Colbath builds a residence near what is now 334 Wyatt Court. Gabriella, his wife, was the original owner of the house as was the common practice of the day: putting property in a wife's name as it was the only investment she could claim free of debt after the husband's death. Elijah came to Salem as a ship's carpenter, went into the lumber business and was a building contractor. He also served with the Capital City Volunteer Fire Company. The family owned the property until the 1920s. The next owner, Homer Wyatt, divided the property and moved the house about 100 feet to the present location. It is a Local Landmark in the NEN neighborhood.
• State Fair goers are treated to their first, amazed glimpses of inventions that would soon be commonplace: Thomas Edison's gramophone and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
• An 1880s photograph shows an industry created in 1877, the White Mill on North Front Street, using the water power of Mill Creek as it falls into the Willamette River. It appears to have been on the south side of the creek, probably on the riverfront where the bridge now crosses Front Street.